Guardians of the Ley Lines book cover

This is what a business in United States was looking for in their book cover design

My goal is to choose a submission ready cover for my self-published book. I am looking for an illustrative design that coordinates with the mood of the book, and with current market expectations.

Attached for context are three prior drafts of the cover. My desire is for something more illustrative (like the first one) than obvious AI, like the other two. The story takes place in a fictional town in the Arizona desert. The landscape is a big part of the story. So I would like the mood and color palette to reflect the desert. Reflect; not be a photorealistic depiction of desert. It need not portray the desert explicitly at all, if the design can invoke it. The book does have a fantasy story, but I do not want a "fantasy book" cover. Something more contemporary in design and font choices.

For example, this cover invokes the sea: https://www.amazon.com/Long-Petal-Sea-Novel/dp/198482015X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.wpAT87WHngEI… Read more